


A Special Day

by sorrow_key



Category: Pandora Hearts
Genre: Bitter-sweet, Canon-Typical Character Death, Cats - free-form, Elliot is the embodiment of that meme with the sword fighter holding the cat pass it on, Gen, Humor, happy birthday elly, implied alcohol, is it cannibalism if it's a chain?, slight gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-24 13:27:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15631599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorrow_key/pseuds/sorrow_key
Summary: Elliot tenses and tightens his hold on the cat that thankfully stays calm.There's no way he'd have such bad luck as to run into a chain or a murderer here, and yet he's wary. Better to be safe than sorry.Carefully changing his hold on the cat to a one-armed one, Elliot draws his sword.“Who's there?” He demands.(in which cats are incorrigible and so is Vincent, and old men remember the dead.)





	A Special Day

Elliot runs down the cobbled stone, his breathing heavy.

It's no use.

“Stupid cat,” he mutters in between breaths as it replays in his head again and again.

Stupid cat, stupid cat, stupid cat. What had even possessed him to help that Vessalius girl out when she asked him if he'd seen Snowdrop?

He'd even left Leo behind with her, since that stupid cat had run away in the town, apparently, and it's dangerous here right now. And when Elliot finally saw that white fur and those unmistakable blue eyes, it just ran away!

Does this cat get a kick out of leading people on wild goose chases or something?

It's all the owner's fault, Elliot decides, and thus cements his urge to yell at Ada Vessalius.

Once he brings Snowdrop back to her, of course. People have been murdered violently recently and Elliot has heard Pandora suspects a chain - and he doubts chains differentiate between humans and animals.

Elliot slows to a jog. Where did Snowdrop disappear to now?

He can't see it ahead, so it must've ran into the narrow alley to his left.

“Stupid cat,” Elliot mutters again, with feeling, stupid and with no regard for safety, and then he steps into the alley.

Snowdrop is stretched out in front of an overflowing dumpster, looking as happy as can be.

Bastard, Elliot thinks, was all of that just a game to you?

Yet he can't bring himself to be angry at it. Instead, he feels the urge to run his hands through that soft fur.

Now isn't the time for that, he tells himself. He won't let himself get bested by this blasted cat's cuteness.

He approaches it slowly, ready for it to bolt again, but Snowdrop lets him do as he pleases, even purring when Elliot picks it up.

“Tired yourself out, did you?”

Now all he needs to do is get it back to the Vessalius girl, and then Elliot can be done with this whole affair once and for all.

Looking at the content cat in his arms, Elliot can't help but feel a twinge of regret at that.

Suddenly there's a rumbling sound from the farther end of the alley.

Elliot tenses and tightens his hold on the cat that thankfully stays calm.

There's no way he'd have such bad luck as to run into a chain or a murderer here, and yet he's wary. Better to be safe than sorry.

Carefully changing his hold on the cat to a one-armed one, Elliot draws his sword.

“Who's there?” He demands.

There's even more clatter. Elliot enters a fighting stance.

A man with long blond hair and wealthy, if dirty clothes stumbles out of the dumpster.

“Vincent?” Elliot stares at him incredulously. “What are _you_ doing here?”

“Oh,” Elliot’s adoptive brother, a prodigy of an incomparable magnitude, says, yawning and rising leisurely, not reacting to the sword pointed at him at all,”hello Elliot. That was a good nap.”

“Are you here on Pandora business?” Elliot asks, lowering his sword.

“Yes, that,” Vincent says. “I don't suppose you've seen my little Echo around?”

“No. Did she leave you like this?”

Elliot is still struck by meeting Vincent like this and even though his relationship with his adoptive brothers’ has always been rocky - especially with Vincent, who'd told him scary stories as a child, he's insulted on his behalf.

Aren't servants supposed to take care of their masters? Echo never seemed like the sloppy kind.

“No, I sent her away.” Vincent stretches and Elliot finally regains himself.

“Then what are you doing, falling asleep in a place like this?! You're still a Nightray, and on duty! Have you no shame!”

“You're noisy,” Vincent drawls and before Elliot can launch into another lecture, impossibly quick, Vincent is at his side, stinking and covering his mouth.

Now that it's quiet, Elliot hears a strange squelching sound and what almost sounds like moans.

Noting Elliot’s silence, Vincent draws his hand away, putting a finger to his mouth with a twisted smile.

Then, he creeps into the direction of the sound.

Conflicted, Elliot looks between his retreating back and the cat.

Should he follow, in case Vincent needs help? Or would he only be a hindrance?

Although he's seen what Vincent can do at the range, he's never fought with him, which makes it difficult to assess his fighting ability.

However, he's heard that Vincent is insanely skilled.

Determined not to get in his way, Elliot decides to follow a few steps behind. Vincent casts a glance at him that Elliot interpretes as condescending, and keeps going.

Elliot glares at his back.

It's still early evening, but it seems much darker as behind a corner, Elliot sees a woman with an expression that seems delirious with joy and a mouth covered in blood.

Then he notices what she's burrowing into her face. It is not an animal's meat.

Elliot feels like vomiting.

“So here you are, Carpenter,” Vincent says mildly, and fires his gun.

 

*

 

“I remember that,” Leo says, with deceptive ease.

“Elliot told me about this, although he left out the nature of the chain. That's just like him.” Leo laughs.

That sound, too, is deceptive.

”It explains why he wasn't hungry all day back then.”

But that is alright. Vincent has nothing to gain from calling out his lord's falseties. Especially not tonight.

“Ada Vessalius wanted to treat us to a meal as thanks, when he brought the cat back, did you know?” Leo continues. “Elliot refused, of course. He was very rude about it, too.”

“I didn't,” Vincent replies, earrings glinting. “But it sounds just like her.”

They don't often talk about the past. Its wounds are still too raw, even after decades.

“Isn't that right? Later, she asked me what he likes and then to deliver sweets to him.”

“Like the ones we have here?“ Vincent asks, indulging his master in nostalgia and taking a sip from his glass.

“No, they don't make those anymore. A shame.” Leo gulps down his own sparkling glass.

“Indeed,” Vincent agrees loftily and raises his glass. ”To Elliot.”

Leo laughs. It's a bitter, ugly sound.

“To Elliot.”

Tonight, they open up those old wounds and make themselves bleed. 

The 8th August... is a special day, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> It was brought to my attention that Elliots birthday coincided with both vore day and cat day, and I couldn't resist.
> 
> Happy birthday, Elliot!


End file.
